Shriking video file

[Dasoldierc]

I've been looking around and trying to find a way to convert a video clip to a specific file size.

I do in game captures of xbox games for a website that hosts videos of the game and not knowing which clips will be used for what I'd like to always capture in very good quality and then convert them to fit a specific file size as needed... ( a lot of the ones on the web aren't made to look there best because of bandwith issues) however some are put onto a disk in there high quality format for advertisements/etc... Is there a specific program I can use to shrink the files to my desired size? I thought I could do this with TMPGEnc but couldn't seem to get it to work.

Thanks,
Dasoldier

[teegee420]

You will need to give some more information in order for someone to help.

1. What format do you capture to, including resolution?

2. What is the average length of your clips?

3. Approximately what size do you want your output files?

Another thing I'm not clear on is how the finished clips will be played. Will they end up on CD or DVD? I have a lot of questions, I know. I just think that you'll get better advice once you fill in some of the blanks.

[Dasoldierc]

1. Avi, 320 x 240
2. 13 minutes.
3. I would like the output file to be under 50 megs.

The clips that I'm conerned about size are ones that will be downloaded... Need to shrink them up as much as possible because they will be constantly previewed/downloaded and will eat up lots of bandwidth.

Thanks.

[teegee420]

I think your choice is between Real Media or Windows Media 9. I did some playing around with Windows Media 9 by way of Canopus Procoder and was really surprised by the result. I used a 12 minute Divx clip and encoded with a video bitrate of 100kbps and and an audio bitrate of 8kbps. I would characterize the sound and video quality as being somewhere between poor and medium, but the clip was adequately watchable. What really impressed me was the fact that the clip was only 10mb(!). Definitely a download friendly clip, wouldn't you say?

The reason why I would not recommend Divx or mpeg is because I don't think you'll be able to get decent results with a 50mb limitation. If I had to choose between Real Media and Windows Media, I'd probably go with WM because I think you could squeeze better quality out with it, not to mention the fact that most newer PC's can play these files without having to install anything new which isn't the case with RM.

You might want to download the trial version of Canopus Procoder and run some tests of your own to decide what you like best. As you'll find out though it's a little on the pricey side. If you should decide to go with either Real Media or Windows Media you can find much cheaper encoding solutions. In fact the Widows Media Encoder on the Microsoft site is free.